Field of the Invention
This application is directed to catheter pumps for mechanical circulatory support of a heart.
Description of the Related Art
Heart disease is a major health problem that has high mortality rate. Physicians increasingly use mechanical circulatory support systems for treating heart failure. The treatment of acute heart failure requires a device that can provide support to the patient quickly. Physicians desire treatment options that can be deployed quickly and minimally-invasively.
Mechanical circulatory support (MCS) systems and ventricular assist devices (VADs) have gained greater acceptance for the treatment of acute heart failure, such as to stabilize a patient after cardiogenic shock, during treatment of acute myocardial infarction (MI) or decompensated heart failure, or to support a patient during high risk percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). An example of an MCS system is a rotary blood pump placed percutaneously, e.g., via a catheter without a surgical cutdown.
In a conventional approach, a blood pump is inserted into the body and connected to the cardiovascular system, for example, to the left ventricle and the ascending aorta to assist the pumping function of the heart. Other known applications include pumping venous blood from the right ventricle to the pulmonary artery for support of the right side of the heart. Typically, acute circulatory support devices are used to reduce the load on the heart muscle for a period of time, to stabilize the patient prior to heart transplant or for continuing support.
There is a need for improved mechanical circulatory support devices for treating acute heart failure. There is a need for devices designed to provide near full heart flow rate and inserted percutaneously (e.g., through the femoral artery without a cutdown).
There is a need for improved mechanical circulatory support devices for treating acute heart failure. In various aspects, there is the need for a ventricular assist device able to be advanced percutaneously and mounted for a meaningful amount of time. For example, in some cases the pump must remain stably attached at the patient's bed side for hours, and even days. In various respects, there is also the need for a system enabling greater flexibility and a greater variety of configurations. For example, it would be advantageous to provide a system that can be used to treated a patient at the bed side and then easily re-configured for ambulatory care.
There is a need for an attachment mechanism that can be used to effectively and removably attach a motor assembly of the catheter pump to a fixture and/or to the patient.
These and other problems are overcome by the inventions described herein.